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Bloody and in pain, when a plastic straw became lodged in the nostril of a turtle, a video showing its removal shook the world – sparking a movement to rid the world of plastic straws. In 2015, PhD student Christine Figgener was on a small fishing boat off Costa Rica's Pacific Coast examining an olive ridley turtle – when she noticed something strange coming out of its nostril. Curious, she started filming as one of her research colleagues began to investigate the object. At just over eight minutes long, the video documents the uncomfortable process during which they extract a plastic straw, while blood drips from the turtle's nose. As a marine biologist, Figgener's focus was turtles, not plastics. However, plastic had always been an issue she encountered on the field, having witnessed turtles and other animals stuck in car tires, fishing nets or plastic bags. "I wasn't an activist, but we scientists can't stay in our ivory tower. We see and document things that need to be communicated more broadly. It's not just about understanding, it's about getting people to care, and explaining what we can actually do," says Figgener. "Just looking at tonnes of plastic floating in the ocean can be a bit abstract, it's not the same as feeling the pain of another creature. It carried the message to non-scientists, showing what the statistics about plastic actually mean." The anti-plastic-straw movement caught the world's attention after Figgener's video went viral. So, just how bad are single-use straws for the environment? Watch the Years before the video surfaced, Jackie Nuñez had been picking up plastic straws just like the one extracted from the turtle. She regularly volunteered in beach cleanups in Santa Cruz, along California's coast and it opened her eyes to the scale of plastic pollution in the ocean. Not too far away, the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a federally protected area, has a series of regulations to protect its diverse environment and rich biodiversity. One of the activities prohibited within the area is "injuring or disturbing marine mammals, seabirds and sea turtles". Although this is explicitly stated, the sanctuary can't control the fact that plastic waste does end up in the ocean, posing a severe threat to our ecosystems. Plastics are known to hurt wildlife in different ways, including entanglement or ingestion, as several species confuse them for food. A new study found hundreds of plastic items in the guts of dead sea turtles in the Mediterranean, where more than 40% of turtles studied contained macroplastics – pieces larger than 5mm – including bottle tops and toys. According to the World Wildlife Fund, one in two marine turtles have eaten plastic – and many starve as their stomachs fill with plastic. The United Nations Environment Programme states that more than 8bn kg (7,874 tonnes) of plastic enter the oceans every year. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240402-the-turtle-video-that-sparked-a-plastic-straw-revolution

Fernando Alonso's passion for Formula 1 shone like a blinding light as he announced his decision to race on with Aston Martin until at least the end of 2026. The Spanish two-time world champion will be 43 in July, and his new contract will mean he will be racing in F1 until at least the age of 45. Alonso is rewriting the sport's rule book, and the remarkable thing about it is that he does not even seem to consider it extraordinary. "I felt I love too much driving that I cannot stop at the moment," said Alonso. "The sacrifices you have to make are smaller than the passion I have for driving. "I breathe F1, I live for F1, I train to be fit to drive F1, I eat to be fit to drive F1. It didn't arrive the moment I felt the need to change lifestyle. I love what I do. I will not be happy sitting at home watching F1 because at the moment I still feel I should be there." On the performance front, there can be little doubt about that. Alonso was one of the outstanding performers of last season, as Aston Martin made a remarkable leap from the middle of the pack to the front at the start of the year. Six podiums in the first eight races followed, including some outstanding drives. And although the team's performance level dropped in the second part of the season, Alonso's did not. His drive to third in Brazil at the end of the season, holding off Sergio Perez's Red Bull for 16 laps and then re-passing it on the final lap after the Mexican had finally got by, was a masterpiece. Alonso has made great play so far this season of saying he wanted to spend some time working out whether he wanted to carry on racing before deciding where to do that if the answer was yes. It has not taken that long. Retirement, he added, "never went to my mind". Alonso said he decided after the third race of the season in Australia that he wanted to keep going. After that, staying with Aston Martin was the "natural decision and the logical thing to do". Aston Martin had offered him a new contract even before they had arrived in Melbourne. It did what Alonso wanted - offered him a long-term commitment, with a tidy salary, that underlined their commitment to him as a driver. After a season like Alonso had in 2023, when he was arguably the second most impressive driver of the year after world champion Max Verstappen, they did not need any more convincing. And it provided Alonso the backing he had not felt at Alpine, a management failure which led to his decision to leave the French team and join Aston in the first place back in the summer of 2022. https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/68794064

Russian missile strikes have left seven people dead in Ukraine's southern Odesa region and Kharkiv in the north-east. A girl aged 10 was among four killed in Odesa late on Wednesday, in an attack coinciding with the city's liberation from the Nazis during World War Two. Two women and a girl of 14 were also killed in an attack on a pharmacy not far from Ukraine's northern border with Russia, officials said. Russia's recent attacks have targeted Ukraine's energy sector in particular. Power infrastructure came under attack in five regions early on Thursday from more than 40 missiles and 40 drones, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Some 200,000 people were left without power in the Kharkiv region alone, said officials, and Mr Zelensky appealed for increased international support. "We need air defence and other defence assistance, not turning a blind eye and lengthy discussions," he said. A multi-billion dollar aid package for Kyiv continues to be blocked by Republicans in the US Congress. The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has been refusing to call a vote on a bill that would provide $60bn (£48bn) in military aid for Ukraine. The US's top general in Europe told Congress on Wednesday that Ukraine would run out of artillery shells and air defence interceptors "in fairly short order" without American support. Gen Christopher Cavoli said Russia was currently firing five artillery shells for every one fired by Ukrainian forces - a disparity which could soon increase to 10 to one. "Without our support, they will not be able to prevail," Gen Cavoli said. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68781339

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